International Development Committee

International Development Select Committee Election

Fabian has been re-elected as a member of this important Select Committee for the term of the new Parliament. He served as a member during the previous government.

Parliamentary Select Committees scrutinise the impact of government policies and hold ministers to account for the decisions that they have made together with the effectiveness of the policies they pursue. The government is committed by law to spending a sum equivalent to 0.7% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on international development in order to alleviate the suffering of the poorest and to help under developed countries to grow economically. International Development expenditure has its critics who argue that the money should be spent instead on alleviating poverty in the UK or perhaps be used to augment the defence budget.

It is therefore vital that MPs have the means to study and assess the effectiveness of the way that taxpayer’s money is used in other countries to ensure that none is wasted and allocated is deployed as imaginatively as possible. Of particular importance is the way that UK government aid can contribute to alleviating the situations of misery in some countries which indirectly give rise to terrorism and economic migration which are issues causing great international concern.